"Attempts to define abnormality are always limited by cultural differences" Consider how definitions of abnormality may be influenced by cultural differences

"Attempts to define abnormality are always limited by cultural differences" Consider how definitions of abnormality may be influenced by cultural differences Cultural differences are always a problem when defining abnormality. What one would consider completely normal in one culture would be considered abnormal in another, for example the island of Java often set fire to a ball soaked in petrol and then play football with it. Here that would be considered wrong and abnormal but is an everyday occurrence for the people of Java. This concept doesn't only apply to eastern cultures; the English could be defined as abnormal by other cultures definitions, even by other western societies e.g. it would not be considered normal by the Italians to wait at a red light when there are no other cars around as the British often do. The 'Deviation from Social Norms' definition of abnormality is greatly limited by cultural differences, for example in Japan there is a very strong work ethic. Those who do not wish to conform and work hard are labelled insane and confined in asylums. If such behaviour was displayed in England they would not be considered insane, they are only treated in such a way in Japan because they have deviated from that cultures social norm. When using this approach to define abnormality you would first have to consider what is normal behaviour for that particular

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Freuds Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development Freud advanced a theory of personality development that centred on the effects of the sexual pleasure drive on the individual consciousness. The following five stages are based around the notion that with each stage, the child's libido becomes centred around certain erogenous zones. The Oral Stage The oral stage begins at birth, when the oral cavity is the primary focus of libidal energy. The child, of course, preoccupies himself with nursing, with the pleasure of sucking and accepting things into the mouth. The oral character who is frustrated at this stage, whose mother refused to nurse him on demand or who truncated nursing sessions early, is characterized by pessimism, envy, suspicion and sarcasm. The overindulged oral character, whose nursing urges were always and often excessively satisfied, is optimistic, gullible, and is full of admiration for others around him. The stage finishes at the weaning stage. The stage lasts approximately one and one-half years. The Anal Stage At one and one-half years, the child enters the anal stage. With the advent of toilet training comes the child's obsession with the erogenous zone of the anus and with the retention or expulsion of the faeces. This represents a classic conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and superego, which

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Outline and evaluate research into obedience (12)

Outline and evaluate research into obedience (12) In Milgram's original obedience to authority study, his aims were to set up a situation in which single individuals were ordered to act against a stranger in an inhumane way and to see at what point they would refuse to obey the order. Milgram advertised for male volunteers by placing an advert in a local paper, which offered $4.50 as payment for taking part in a study of 'punishment and learning'. 40 respondents from a range of backgrounds were selected and were told to attend the laboratory in Yale University. They were greeted by the experimenter, and were introduced to a 'supposedly' participant, Mr Wallace, but actually he was a confederate. They were both experienced to a role-assignment but it was rigged so that the real participant was the teacher. The experimenter explained to the teacher that it was his job to teach the learner a series of word pairs and then test their recall. If an error was made in the answer, an electric shock was made, starting from 15V working upwards each time. As the shocks became higher, the learner screamed and became more dramatic, and complained of a weak heart at around 180V. The participants showed signs of extreme tension, even showing nervous laughing fits, but they were still told to 'please go on' even though they didn't want to continue. Along side that, when the teacher refused

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Outline the development of attachments

Developmental Psychology - Key Assessment Task a) Outline the development of attachments An attachment is a powerful bond between an infant and its caregiver. Infants form attachments because they are helpless at birth and so need caregivers to provide for and protect them. There are many long term effects of attachments, for example an attachment gives a foundation for emotional relationships e.g. the infant is learning how to form an emotional or "love" relationship. Schaffer and Emerson believed that infants form attachments by three stages, this argument was based on a large scale study of 60 infants in a working class area of Glasgow over 2 years. The first stage of attachment Schaffer and Emerson believed a child to go through happens when they are 0-6 weeks old, this is known as the Asocial Stage and involves the infant smiling and crying but not directing these emotions at individuals. The second stage of attachment is known as Indiscriminate Attachment and happens when the infant is 6 weeks to 7 months old; this involves the child seeking attention from different individuals. The last stage of attachment is Specific Attachments and happens when the infant is 7-11 months old, this stage shows a strong attachment to one individual, with good attachment to others following afterwards. b) Describe the procedures and findings of one study of individual difference in

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Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression

Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression. (24 marks) Bandura believed that the potential for aggression may be biological, but the expression of aggression is learned. The social-learning theory (SLT) states that learning occurs through observation of a model. Imitation of an observed behaviour is more likely if the model is someone we aspire to or identify with or if they are rewarded. This is vicarious reinforcement. A child forms a mental representation of an event, including the possible rewards or punishments of the behaviour. When a child imitates an aggressive behaviour, they gain direct experience, and the outcome of the behaviour influences the value of aggression for the child. If they are rewarded they are more likely to repeat the behaviour. Children develop self-efficacy, which is confidence in their ability to successful carry out a behaviour. If aggressive behaviour is unsuccessful for a child, they will have a lower sense of self-efficacy so are less likely to behave this way in future. There is strong empirical evidence to support the SLT. For example, Bandura's Bobo doll studies found that children who observed a model behaving aggressively to the Bobo doll behaved more aggressively than those who observed a non-aggressive model and also imitated specific aggressive acts. This supports the theories claims that behaviour can be

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Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development

Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development Bandura believed that an individual's personality was developed as a result of interaction between the individual and their environment. He called this interaction reciprocal determinism, and suggested that people play an active role in determining their behaviour in an environment: they will behave in a certain way that is appropriate for the setting that they are in, but their behaviour may also change that setting. This, according to Bandura's social-cognitive theory, occurs by means of a process of observation and imitation, known as modelling. Modelling is spontaneous and requires no deliberate effort on the part of the learner or the model (the person whose behaviour is to be observed and imitated), and reinforcement is not necessary for such learning to occur. This means that the study explains what the Behaviourist explanation of behaviour could not: the ability to produce or reproduce behaviour without reinforcement. However, although unnecessary, reinforcement will affect the performance of the behaviour; this is known as vicarious reinforcement. Bandura's theory incorporates cognitive factors into its explanation, and for a model's behaviour to be imitated, there must be some internal mental representation of the model. There are five steps to the modelling process. The first

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Evaluation of Freud's little Hans study.

Evaluate the little Hans study Strengths of the little Hans study are that they support the usefulness of case studies and have the ability to reveal and treat the origins of abnormal behaviour. In fact some forms of psychotherapy rely on building up a long and detailed case history as an aid to understanding and then helping the client. Case studies like that of little Hans are able to produce very in-depth qualitative data. In fact Freud argued that it was the special and intimate relationship between Hans and his father that displayed such progress of the analysis However, this case study only relates to little Hans as one individual and therefore there is a danger in generalising the findings to the population. There is no way of assessing how typical little Hans was and whether or not his situation can be generalised as the study could have been unique between Freud, Hans's father and little Hans. As well as this, Hans's father and mother were supporters of Freud's ideas thus they may have been raising little Hans in relation to Freud's theories so when it came to giving evidence of little Hans's phobia they did so in relation to Frauds' theories. Freud himself did not regularly meet little Hans as he only met him on one or two occasions, so Freud was only interpreting what Hans's father was interpreting of little Hans so it lacks a lot of objectivity. The little

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Outline and evaluate the theory of deindividuation

Outline and Evaluate the Theory of Deindividuation Aggression is the intent to harm someone through verbal or physical actions. The Deindividuation theory is used to explain how anonymity can lead to individuals behaving in an antisocial manner, even though they would not act in this way in any normal circumstances. Deindividuation happens when you have an individual who feels anonymous, they act in ways that they would not normally due to social norms, but the fact that they are deindividuated makes them feel fine about not complying to the social norms, for example breaking the law and being aggressive. There are situations that increase Deindividuation, such as being in a group, or wearing a mask. In large groups an individual may act violent due to the responsibility not being completely on them. A strength of the Deindividuation theory is that there are many studies that support it. Zimbardo's prison experiment is a prime example that Deindividuation results in violent/aggressive behaviours. Within the experiment students were randomly allocated to prisoners and guards, the prisoners wore uniforms with sunglasses and treated the prisoners harsh, so harsh that the experiment had to be called off after just 5 days. This experiment is a clear example of how Deindividuation works, due to the guards wearing the uniform and sunglasses they were not acting themselves and

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Outline and Evaluate the biological model to Abnormality.

Aleksander Filipczak Outline and Evaluate the biological model to Abnormality. The biological approach sees mental disorders being caused by abnormal physiological processes in the body. Therefore, any abnormality must have specific causes that happen in some bodily malfunction or genetic factors etc. For this model, the cure is to remove such the root cause, thus returning the body's status to "normal". This model is called the biological or medical model, due to the reason that it approaches mental illness diagnosis with a similarity to that of physical illnesses. Due to the model being very scientific in nature of investigation and understanding the psychological illness, it is most widely accepted model to psychological abnormality around the world. The biological model states, that all mental disorders are related to some change in the body, such as brain damage, genes, infection or biochemistry. Many abnormalities with the brain might occur due to genetic inheritance, which means that the abnormality was passed down from parent to child. A way of investigating this is by studying pairs of identical twins. They can be compared to each other (due to identical genetic structure) , and therefore see, that if abnormality is passed down by genetics, if one twin has a disorder, then the second should also have it, which gives us concordance rates. Research suggests that

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OCR G543 - Evaluate the use of a longitudinal research design when considering upbringing as an explanation for criminal behaviour.

Forensic Psychology Q) Evaluate the use of a longitudinal research design when considering upbringing as an explanation for criminal behaviour. (15) A) Longitudinal studies are psychological investigations carried out over a long period of time, or at various intervals over a long period of time. They allow psychologists to study changes in behaviour and, for instance, partiality to crime, and how this behaviour and the attitudes of those partaking in such behaviour change over time and why. But there is a flaw in the fact that longitudinal studies like Farrington, et al.’s, have many extraneous variables that can affect the validity of the results. This is not an issue for studies like Wikstrom & Täfel’s Peterborough Youth Study, which was a snapshot study – a study conducted at just one point in time – and consists of a singular analysis of the school reports of 2,000 14/15 year olds and one interview, thus making the practicality of psychological research far easier than the 40 year-long longitudinal study Farrington conducted. On top of this, the most commonly used approach to collecting data from longitudinal research is self report; both Farrington and Wikstrom & Täfel used them. Self report techniques are a good indicator of partiality to criminal behaviour because you can ask personal questions and learn about smaller crimes that unreliable criminal

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